In these early days of summer, checking the future release Christmas listings at Amazon is a bit like watching paint dry; the new listings tend to be budget priced "no artist" and studio musician fare. 26 Christmas Hits by The Holiday Band, Christmas Bosa Nova by the Cinnamon Swizzle Sticks, Latin Christmas Party by Mexicali Mistletoe (those are all made up, by the way). For instance, I'm not inclined to add the "reissue" of "Blues For Christmas" by Eddy Wilson and Friends to our official list. Not that it's the worst thing I've ever heard, even with its canned music and Michael Bolton-ish vocals. It's just that I don't think (IMHO) it approaches Blues music at all. Your mileage may vary, I suppose.

Every once in a while, though, something pops up that warrants further investigation...something with the potential to be seriously cool.

Which brings us to Lunch At Allens and their coming Christmas album "ZuZu's Petals".

Lunch At Allens is a Canadian super group of sorts, featuring four singer/songwriters of diverse influence and style. Back around 2004, the group of friends and colleagues were having one of their occasional afternoon gatherings at Allen's Pub and Restaurant in Toronto. As they talked about their music and shared some old stories, it occurred to them that this was how their music should be presented--loose and live, intimate and fun. Lunch At Allens was born.

The most familiar name to those of us on this side of the border would likely be Ian Thomas , the younger brother of SCTV's Dave Thomas, who scored a then ubiquitous American hit in 1973 with "Painted Ladies". Thomas continued writing, recording and performing more than a dozen hits in Canada before joining The Boomers with whom he charted another half dozen or so. Thomas even recorded a Christmas song in 1988, "Because It's Christmas", which was included on the Canadian promotional CD "Reveillon".

Marc Jordan I vaguely remember from his 1974 pop single "New York Kids". It wasn't anything approaching a hit, but I always thought it was a catchy tune. Marc's music is generally referred to as West Coast AOR and there are elements of Jazz, Rock, and Folk in his sound. While he's nailed a few Canadian hits on his own, his biggest success has been writing music for other artists--like Rod Stewart, Bette Midler, Diana Ross and Cher. Oh, and he's married to Amy Sky. So...bonus points and mad respect for that.

Murray McLaughlin is considered a legend in the Great White North, with ten Juno awards and 23 Juno nominations to his credit. The Folk and Country artist has had plenty of chart success, but his #1 Country smash "Down By The Henry Moore" is his most iconic song.

Last, but not least, the sweet voice of traditional Country, Cowboy and Folk singer Cindy Church may well be the peanut butter holding those three slices of bread together. Cindy's official discography may be brief, compared to her male band mates, but she's no less accomplished and her catalog of original songs is quite extensive after better than 25 years of song writing. No stranger to holiday music, either, Cindy's "other" group--the eclectic Quartette--released "It's Christmas" in 1996.

Together, Lunch At Allens has the feel of early Crosby, Stills & Nash in that their Alternative Roots music is presented revue style as they work their way through each other's back catalog of great original music and collaborate on new songs for LAA. Probably the easiest way to get a feel for Lunch At Allens and to ponder the kind of awesome holiday album they're capable of would be to check out their three previous records--"Lunch At Allen's", "Catch The Moon", and "More Lunch At Allen's".

O-h, y-e-a-h. There's definitely some serious potential here. Mark "ZuZu's Petals" down in the "I can't wait" column, for sure. Release date for this one is September 18.

Leave a Reply.

About us

I love Christmas, music, and cats. What more do you need to know?Anyone wishing to contact Stubby's for any reason may do so by emailing:​info@stubbyschristmas.com.Artists and labels, please be aware that my webmail is broken (I can receive but not send). Any reply from me will come from my personal email (which I will not list here for the spam-bots to find). I apologize for any hassle or inconvenience this may cause.Readers should assume that any item reviewed on this site has been provided by the artist or label in exchange for promotional consideration, whether or not that is actually the case. If you are the copyright holder for any song or image appearing here and wish that item to be removed, please let me know via email and I will remove it forthwith. My intentions are to inform and interest people in your work, so that they might purchase it; not to provide anyone a way to avoid doing so.